Site Event/Activity record ECH3748 - Warburton Mill, Heatley, Cheshire: An Archaeological Building Appraisal of a late water-powered corn mill complex

An archaeological building appraisal was undertaken in 1998 of Warburton Mill, Bent Lane, Lymm, Warrington. This comprised a desk based study of the mill building and its landscape context and a visual inspection of the interior and exterior of the building including photographs and measured drawings where required. The mill buildings date from the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a period spanning the mechanisation of flour milling which occurred in the late nineteenth century, represented by the transition to steel rollers and the introduction of water turbine technology. The earliest and largest part of the comples to survive is the four storey brick milling building, central to the site. A building is present on this site on all maps from the estate survey map of circa 1757 onwards, however, the design of the mill building and use of cast iron columns as supports indicates a late eighteenth/early nineteenth century date. The complex also also includes a nineteenth century mill house and an ancilliary building of late eighteenth/nineteenth century date; the fabric of both structures indicates more than one phase of build. The rest of the buildings, including hoist, loading bays, storage and grain silo, are of mid-twentieth century date. The mill complex is complete except for a drying kiln. The power system survives in the main mill building and comprises the water turbine and engine; also, externally, the weir and sluice system of the head-race survive. (1)